PRSSA   AD Club   National competitions   Guest speakers
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Chapman offers a wide range of professional and extracurricular networking opportunities to enrich and enlarge what you learn in class.

Public Relations Student Society of America(PRSSA)

The Public Relations Student Society of America was founded in 1968 by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) to cultivate relationships between students and professional public relations practitioners. Today, there are more than 8,000 members in 248 chapters on college campuses across the country.  For more information see http://www.prssa.org

PRSSA at Chapman
The Chapman University chapter of PRSSA is open to all students, regardless of major.  The Chapman student chapter is sponsored by the Orange County chapter of PRSA (http://www.ocprsa.org/), one of the largest and most active chapters in the country.

The mission of PRSSA at Chapman University is:
To give students a competitive edge in the field of public relations through learning, service, and leadership opportunities offered in networking with public relations professionals and working with clients on campus and off, locally, regionally and nationally.

PRSSA offers professional and social opportunities as well as scholarships and networking opportunities that can lead to internships and jobs, including:

• On campus, the chapter hosts guest speakers who talk with students about their experiences and public relations, marketing and advertising issues.
• Off-campus, the chapter hosts social and other networking events such as an annual Alumni BBQ and field trips to locations chosen by the members.
• Competition: Each year, a team of PRSSA students competes in the annual Bateman Case Study Competition, a national public relations program sponsored by PRSA.
• Service: PRSSA members organize service projects such as a food or a clothing drive for the homeless or participate in community service projects such as the Children’s Hospital of Orange County Annual Walk-a-thon.
• News and opportunities: The Chapter maintains a Blackboard site (see here) to notify members of events and internship offerings.  It also publishes a newsletter to keep members informed of its activities.

Chapman Ad Club

The Chapman Ad Club provides a forum for students to meet advertising professionals and participate in internships, agency tours and field trips. As a college chapter of the American Advertising Federation (AAF) and a partner with the Orange County Ad Club, the Chapman Ad Club has increased student exposure to the regional and national advertising industries. The Chapman Ad club is made up of students from various majors who have an interest in advertising and provides events in which students may interact socially with their advertising peers.

The American Advertising Federation (AAF) is the advertising industry’s trade organization based in Washington, DC. The AAF “College Connection” sponsors the National Student Advertising Competition as well as numerous internships and scholarships. (www.aaf.org)

In the summer of 2005, two Chapman students were recognized by the AAF with prestigious internships awarded in a nationwide competition.

Vance L. Stickell Memorial Student Internship Program

This internship was established in honor of Vance L. Stickell, former executive vice president, marketing, for the Los Angeles Times and a member of the Advertising Hall of Fame who led the Times to national prominence while pioneering industry-wide improvements that have had lasting impact in the advertising community.

The Vance L. Stickell Memorial Student Internship Program is intended to raise the awareness and understanding of advertising processes and business ethics among future advertising professionals.

Chapman student Evan Nicholson was awarded this internship in 2005, the only student selected from southern California. He was assigned to the interactive advertising department of Toyota Motors.

AAF/ADWEEK W. Pendleton Tudor Media Internship Program

This internship was established to honor the contributions of W. Pendleton Tudor, retired chairman of ADWEEK.

Each year, one student who shows promise and a desire to gain experience in the media aspect of advertising is selected to complete a 10-week summer internship at ADWEEK headquarters in New York. The intern receives a $5,000 stipend to cover transportation costs, food, lodging and other living expenses during the internship.

Chapman student Rob Harrington, the 2005-2006 president of the Chapman Ad Club, was awarded this internship for summer 2005.

The OC Ad Club http://www.ocadclub.org/ promotes the advertising industry in Orange County, offering social events, awards programs, speakers, forums, internship opportunities, and a career fair for local college students. In May 2005 Chapman hosted the first Orange County Advertising Career Fair.

Wishland Foundation: Founded in September 2003, Wishland is an Orange County-based non-profit foundation that provides cherished moments of joy and hope to children with a life-threatening condition and their families. Chapman Ad Club has adopted the Wishland Foundation as its philanthropic cause, raising funds and providing student volunteers at Wishland events.

National competitions

Want to find out if you’ve got what it takes?  There’s no better way than by competing against students at other colleges and universities to find out how good you really are.  Chapman regularly participates in professional academic competitions.

Bateman Case Study Competition
This national competition challenges student teams from colleges and universities around the country to analyze a public relations challenge and create a campaign to address the issues involved.  It’s a lot of work, but also a lot of fun.  If you choose to take on this challenge, you’ll learn a lot about strategic thinking, planning, working with a group, and coming up with creative communications solutions to real problems and opportunities. 

Chapman has had remarkable success in this competition, competing against as many as 80+ teams.  In 1995, the Chapman team placed first in the nation and won an all-expenses paid trip to New York to present their campaign to the client. In seven of the ten years Chapman has entered, teams have received national recognition.  (See PR Students Earn National Honors http://www.chapman.edu/admission/news/news_story.asp?iNewsID=273&strBack=%2FDefault%2Easp.)

Past case studies have dealt with nuclear energy, the American Heart Association, a nonprofit community-centered family counseling service provider, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, SOLOBIZ.COM, Visa U.S.A., Contiki Holidays, the snack spread Nutella, and most recently an on-campus challenge to advance ethical behavior in academic performance.

AAF's National Student Advertising Competition 
This premier college advertising competition provides more than 3,000 college students with "real-world" experience by requiring a strategic advertising/marketing/media campaign for a corporate sponsor. Sixteen schools are selected to present their campaigns to a panel of industry executives at the AAF National Conference. Each year Chapman fields a team for this prestigious competition

Guest Speakers
An important component of our program is learning from working professionals.  You can't learn everything from books, so we bring a variety of guest speakers to campus to share their firsthand experience. 

Speakers from every conceivable business and organization have visited our campus, including representatives from United Way, Rogers and Cowan, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Might Ducks, Fox Television, Capitol Records, the Newport Harbor Art Museum, Hill and Knowlton, and many, many more.  If you want to learn more about a particular area, we can invite someone from that field to share their experiences with you.

Speakers in 2004-05 included:

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